"The Infallible Eye"
"The Infallible Eye"
Written by Thursday, 06 September 2001 02:00
Using a Video Camera for Aquarium Photos
A lot of people write to me asking for the best technique to shoot photos of their aquariums. George wrote a great article about it so the best think you can do is to read it carefully and shoot, shoot and shoot again! Practice is the best teacher in this field!
In these days, I'm trying a different technique to snap images for my job. When I do a new aquascape in my shop, I have no problem to take photos of the tank, but, sometimes, when I work outside, it is impossible for me to bring the cameras, tripod and the lighting equipment in order to record my work, not to mention the fact that sometimes the client doesn't like to have a group of people to stroll around his house for a couple of hours!
So I started thinking of an alternative (and less intrusive) way to have a record of my work. What came out, was something much, much, much more surprising than I thought!
A video-camera is easy to use: it doesn't require special lights (actually they're sensitive even to very faint light), they don't need a tripod because of their light weight, they show right away the result of the shooting and, last but not least, they let you take a movie, that means, at the end, a lot of pictures to view, in order to choose the best one!
Once the quality of the imagines was very poor, but today you can have a better result, maybe not as good as photos but good enough to have small prints or to show them on the internet. And, let me tell you that the possibilities are so surprising that a little decay of the quality can be tolerated. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to shoot pictures of the courting of a Betta splendens in the classical way and how easy and much more detailed will this be if you try a video-camera instead (see next page)?
I use a cheap video camera which I chose based on 2 important requisites: the higher sensitivity and the compatibility to the video software in my computer.
The result... You can see by yourself ! Not bad, what do you think?
Technical data:
- Video-camera: Panasonic RX11
- Software: Matrox mistique + Matrox MGA 64-bit graphics Raimbow runner and Photoshop 5.0
Using the video-camera, it is easy to shoot difficult pictures without spending a lot of time in discouraging attempts! Here you can see my two Astronotus ocellatus from their best angle!
Fish are very funny creatures. But, as every photographer knows very well they move so fast that it's almost impossible to portrait them at their best. As you can see, even a gold fish can be amusing, if you capture it at the right moment.
The quality of this photo is not very good, but the conditions of shooting were very difficult (low light and unclear water). In exchange I had the opportunity to show the peculiar behaviour of this babies of Melanochromis auratus, that always stays close to the Ciphotilapia frontosa to be protected from the other Cichlid in the tank.
And this picture of myself reflected in one of my aquariums, shows how a video-camera can be creative, using some filters of Photoshop and some imagination.
Betta splendens
Betta splendens (Siamese fighting fish) belongs to the Family Belontiidae (Sub-Family: Macropodinae). This is one of the most impressive tropical freshwater fish in the hobby. The peculiarity of this species is the fact that two males can't co-exist in the same tank since they will fight each other to death. However, it is possible to keep many females with one male or keep a colony in a community tank. Males reach a final size of 6-7 cm and have much longer very colorful fins. Keeping this fish in the small compartments or fish bowls is a cruelty and should be avoided. The fish needs a lot of space and a temperature of 25-30 C. Although they can tolerate a wide range of pH, they do best in acidic environment (5.5 - 6.8). The following sequences (captured by the author with a video camera) show the spawning of a Betta splendens pair and the nest building procedures.
In this sequence you can see the typical movements of the Betta splendens male while it is courting the female. It spreads its fins and folds its body to show itself in the most impressive way to attract its mate.
In this sequence you can see the building of the nest of Betta splendens. This procedure requires the hobbyist to reduce the flow on the surface as a strong current may destroy the nest. See below a video captured image which shows this in more detail. For information on how to use your video camera to capture such images see the discussion above.
Have a nice video-shooting everybody!
Photos by the author.
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